After the Lord had commanded hands to be imposed, He subjoins, in the Hebrew (v. 18): “And [thou shalt make] him (Joshua) stand before Eleazar the Priest, and before the whole assembly,” or “before the whole synagogue of Israel.” But the manner in which Moses made him stand, Philo (in the book On Charity, cited before) explains: “For Moses, having grasped Joshua’s right hand, led him forth to the assembly, nothing solicitous about his own impending death; but, with a fresh gladness accruing to his familiar hilarity, briskly addressed the people in these words: ‘Now the time presses for me of departing from this bodily life; but there shall succeed to my care this [man] chosen by God’” — and at the same time he brought forth the oracle (of which quest. 7), “to whom soon credit was given.” And [Joshua] was so constituted before the eyes of all, that by all he might be truly recognized, approved, [and] received as prince. And therefore, at the end of the chapter, they say [that] the 70 [elders] were commended to Joshua by Moses. But when all the Jews were gathered together in that assembly, yet one [stood] before—
(col. 198)
—all, and alone is named Eleazar: that the Pontiff’s dignity might be shown, and in the election and approbation of the prince, [his] authority, as [being] especially necessary, might be commended.